


Three Monkeys

by Pyralis_Anacreon



Series: The Tale of Naruto Uzumaki [4]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Character Study, Gen, Worldbuilding
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-31
Updated: 2016-07-31
Packaged: 2018-07-28 08:03:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,784
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7631773
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pyralis_Anacreon/pseuds/Pyralis_Anacreon
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The dark god does not want you to be happy. He wants you to be strong.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Tower

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sasuke never took a vow of silence, but he may as well have.

**26th of March, 66 f.K.**

"Target eliminated," Sasuke murmured into his radio headset when he had retrieved it from between the roots of a tall oak tree. "Proceed to rendezvous? Over."

There was a pause of static silence. Sasuke reflected that he missed having Naruto and Sakura on all of his missions; they never insisted he talk quite this much. He only had to click the button on their line to communicate. In the silence, he turned over his forearm to inspect the fresh cut there. It wasn't deep enough to need stitching, but he should bandage it up when he was done here.

"Uh, meet-up point potentially compromised, due to some.... unfortunate circumstances. Beta site is also compromised, over."

Sasuke wondered what kind of idiocy compromised both the primary and the backup rendezvous, and then decided he didn't care or want to know. "Clear to rendezvous at home? Over."

"Yeah, that should be fine. It was just fuckin' Rhino's - "

There was a clatter over the radio line, as if someone had snatched it away and fumbled it, and then a voice with her mouth too close to the microphone said, "It was so not my fault! See you at home, over and out!"

Sasuke rolled his eyes, wishing he could for once work with some damn professionals, and tucked the radio unit away in his pack. If the rendezvous was compromised, he'd just have to get back to Konoha by himself. He'd probably be faster alone anyway.

* * *

**27th of March, 66 f.K.**

The next thing Sasuke knew, he was blinking heavy eyelids open and looking up into bright morning sunlight.

He tried to sit up, but found every muscle responded lethargically, his limbs numb and refusing to cooperate. The tightening of his abdomen brought attention to a powerful nausea; he managed to roll right before he vomited up bile and water; no food.

He lay there on his side, exhausted, and realized vaguely that his arm was on fire. He couldn't quite find the energy to put it out.

"Oh, you're awake," a young woman's voice said, and she walked around the top of his head and came into view. She was dressed in long green robes, with close-cropped dark brown hair and plain, unadorned features. If she was trying to pass as a man, she needed to bind those breasts and do something about her voice.

Sasuke focused on what little else of the world he could see. The rippling walls of a cloth tent with the roof rolled back, dyed a faded green, and two more bedrolls across from his. Both contained people: a pale young boy, and an old woman propped up on pillows and staring distantly at nothing.

Sasuke turned back to the woman. Now that he was looking, he saw the bronze medallion around her neck.

She eyed him critically. "That was some nasty poison in your cut, but it was a local brew that I'm familiar with, so I had some antidote on hand. You won't be able to move for a little while yet, so don't strain yourself."

She was clearly unfamiliar with how quickly a ninja could heal. "I'm leaving," Sasuke said, and tried to sit up again.

She stepped back to let him dry-heave onto the dirt in front of her feet again. He glared murderously at her when he was done.

"I wasn't kidding," she insisted, an edge of tension entering her tone. "Please don't strain yourself. I don't want you here any more than you do."

Sasuke spat, and reached for the clay jug of water when she offered it. He rinsed, spat again, and drank deeply. Finally, voice hoarse, he asked, "Why did you save me then?"

Her hand came up to touch the medallion around her neck. "I serve the myriad gods. I was ill, and I prayed to be saved. Since it was the healing that saved me, I have answered my calling to become a healer and taken an oath to heal all who cross my path, however I can."

Sasuke wrinkled his nose. "I asked why you saved me, not for your life story. I am _shinobi_ , idiot, your gods would not have seen or cared if you turned away from me."

She glared at him, tension forgotten. "You're very rude, shinobi. I made my oath to my gods _and_ myself. Just because the only one you answer to is the dark god - "

"I don't."

She stopped. "You kill, don't you? Keep your secrets? Pledge loyalty to your king, the Shadow?"

Sasuke snorted, thinking of how happy Naruto would be to hear himself called king, or something as ominous as The Shadow. But, "Yes."

She smiled a little, triumphant. "Then you are a priest of the dark god, too. All you ninja are."

"Then why did you save me?" Sasuke demanded, honest confusion leaking into his voice. He didn't regret being saved; he would have hated to die to poison. But he had never encountered an act of true kindness from a civilian to a shinobi.

Usually, they avoided him. Or ran away screaming.

"My oath is to myself," she said again, softly, gripping tight her little bronze necklace. "Which means that I help everyone I can, whether my gods are watching them or not."

_I will avenge you, I swear it._

Sasuke watched her closely, but he saw no deception. He rolled onto his back, carefully, and stared through narrow eyes up into the sky. He had never understood a religious aspect, but he knew all about oaths to yourself.

"I'll leave as soon as I can," he told her.

"My name is Ami," she replied. "I know you can't tell me yours. Call for me if you need anything."

* * *

Sasuke didn't know how - perhaps an effect of the poison - but he slept long and deep, dreaming of nothing. He woke at dusk, as Ami began to roll the roof over the tent, and watched her from his bedroll.

Experimentally, he tried to lift an arm. It came up slow but able; he tried and succeeded at sitting up, but the effort left him winded and angry with his own weakness.

"That'll be the poison in your insides," Ami told him, almost cheerful. "It leaves the muscles pretty fast, but it lingers in the softer tissues. Your heart's beating too fast, right?"

Sasuke went still for a moment, listening. Yes, it was beating much too fast; almost seventy beats a minute by his count.

"'Course, that was hard for me to judge. Samurai sometimes have much slower heartbeats, but I never realized how slow a ninja's could be. I thought you were much closer to dying when I found you than you really were."

"Shut up," Sasuke demanded without venom.

"Are you going to kill me when you can?" Ami asked, stopped in front of him. She seemed nervous, but not nearly as nervous as the question should imply.

Sasuke stared at her.

"All the stories of ninja I've heard - all the ones that aren't stupid romances, anyway - say that you're cold-blooded killers who do it for fun. So, are you?"

"If you think I might kill you, why don't you brain me with that water jug over there," Sasuke gestured, sneering, "Instead of _asking me_ about it."

Ami sighed noisily. "I'm not going to kill you, stupid, I just finished saving your life - "

"But you think I might murder you the moment I can?"

"Well, you don't seem to be very happy with me! I expected at least maybe a thank you, or at least this warning if you're planning my death. I'd like to get someone up here to watch over these two, as well." She waved back at the sleeping little boy and the old woman.

Sasuke stared, dumbfounded. He had been saved by someone possibly even more stupid than Naruto.

Naruto could never know.

He replied slowly, so she could understand, "I will not kill you."

She squinted suspiciously. "Or them?"

"Who?" Sasuke demanded.

"My other patients. He's got a sticky cold, and her mind is going so I keep an eye on her every once in a while."

"No! I won't kill them either!" When she, for some reason, didn't look convinced - it might have had something to do with the furious look on Sasuke's face - he added, "Typically I only kill people when I'm paid to. Or if the Hokage tells me to. Or if they're in the way of my mission."

"That's still a lot more reasons to kill people than most have." Ami observed, and went to check on her other patients.

Sasuke groaned loudly, past the point where he cared about maintaining a certain image, and tried to get up. He managed a slow hobble across the small tent, to where he could see his pack in a corner. He had to pause halfway there to get his breath back, which was maddening.

Ami had removed his wrapped bandages to look for other injuries, not realizing that they were clean. Sasuke reapplied these to his shins and upper arms, and one above his left knee. He grabbed the shuriken and kunai pouches as well, and took them back to his bedroll.

He saw Ami looking at him out of the corner of his eye.

Sasuke levered himself down onto the bedroll carefully and paused there, kneeling. He reminded himself that he didn't have to owe her anything; her aide was given freely, and he had never asked for it.

"Can't sleep without a weapon," he explained shortly, and sat cross-legged on the bedroll. Sleeping upright wasn't nearly as restful, but he was nowhere near comfortable enough among strangers to lay down if he didn't have to.

There was a soft scuff in front of him; Ami had crossed the tent and come to him again.

She was on one knee, staring at him. "No one here wants to harm you," she said quietly. "I'm sorry I asked you about killing earlier. I just... had to make sure. I wouldn't try to hurt you."

Sasuke flicked his eyes into the Sharingan, and his hand shot out in a blur, wrapped around her neck in an unbreakable grip. She froze.

Her fear would be burned into his memory forever, thanks to the Copy Wheel Eye. Sasuke closed his eyes and opened them again with the Sharingan off. He released her throat.

"It's not you I'm worried about," he said gruffly, looking away. "I have other enemies."

Ami didn't say another word as she stood on shaking legs and stumbled away - to the little boy and the old woman, the patients that didn't make her fear for her life.

Sasuke felt the words gathered on his tongue: _I'm sorry for scaring you_. But he had done it, and apologizing wouldn't change it. As usual, speech would not quite come. Not when he needed it - never for these little moments, the small and important words.

Through three long years of close contact, Sakura, Naruto, and Kakashi had developed an almost preternatural ability to hear the things Sasuke somehow couldn't say. But Ami, like everyone else, didn't have that ability.

So Sasuke stared at her hunched back and shoved away the small guilt, and thought, _Naruto would have stopped me. Sakura would have told her I was sorry about it._  


But his team wasn't on this mission with him, so it didn't matter. He could shoulder this with all the rest of it, and forget about it later.

* * *

**28th of March, 66 f.K.**

Sasuke found himself ready to go in the morning, healed enough to at least begin traveling. He'd be fully recovered by the time he reached Konoha, by his estimation. And he paused at the flap of the tent, his pack secured to his back and all of his weaponry attached.

_Come on, Sasuke, you can do this. It's just talking. You do it all the time._

The voice in his head sounded suspiciously like Naruto, but Sasuke let that slide. He turned around, faced Ami who was watching him leave with something like relief in her eyes.

He paused for a long moment to gather his words. Ami began to frown, opened her mouth to ask - 

"My name is Sasuke Uchiha, of the Leaf. If you ever see a ninja with this symbol - " He pointed to his headband, the affiliation he could now wear openly - "And tell them my name, they will leave you in peace."

He'd make sure of it.

Ami closed her mouth, lips trembling a little as she tried to smile. "Thank you."

Sasuke thought to her. _Thank you for saving my life._ He couldn't say it out loud, but it didn't matter. She had no reason to care for his thanks, and he'd given her a favor in return.

Instead, he turned and ducked out of the tent. The sooner his bloody hands were away from her place of healing, the better.


	2. The Chariot

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sakura has been turning a deaf ear to people whispering all her life.

**29th of December, 61 f.K.**

"We're going to be on the same team, Sasuke! Isn't that great? It's a shame we'll be with the dead-last Naruto, though.... I'm sure he won't drag you down!" Sakura looked down at the plastic container in her hands, remembering her other purpose. "Oh... I brought you your favorite tomatoes as a graduation present!"

Sasuke only looked at her for a long moment, and then at the box in her hands. "I never told you my favorite."

Dismayed, worried she'd gotten it wrong when she observed his lunches, Sakura only said, "Oh, um...."

Behind her, two of the other girls talking quietly to each other behind upheld hands. A guilty laugh escaped one of them. With the ease of practice, Sakura didn't hear a word they were saying.

Sasuke took the tomatoes, and he ate them while they waited impatiently for this new sensei.

* * *

**14th of January, 63 f.K.**

"But... I thought you were going to be teaching Naruto?" Sakura asked, still unsure about what Jiraiya was saying.

Jiraiya sighed explosively. "Damn, I thought Hatake said you were smart. I'll teach him some good techniques and some fighting, but he doesn't have the head for the spymaster stuff I handle. Hatake thinks that you do."

"But... I got really low marks on my espionage practical tests. And sensei's never said any of this to me. Wouldn't... I don't know... Sasuke be better for it? He's quiet, and people respect him."

Jiraiya muttered something about 'a box of cats' and said, louder, "Just because he's never outright said it doesn't mean it isn't true. And people'd respect you, too, if you could get rid of some of those habits you've got."

Sakura froze, one hand running through the back of her short-cropped hair. "What habits?"

Jiraiya reached out, slowly, and knocked her hand away. "You touch your hair too often, especially when you're uncomfortable. You put modifiers in your speech that make it seem like you're never really sure about anything you say; you're not committed to it. And you almost never look me in the eyes."

Sakura shook her head. "But I'm not - I don't listen to all those rumors and gather information, I've never done that. I would never be able to."

"Why'd you never listen to them? Everyone hears rumors, girl, even if you think you didn't."

"N-no, I - I really never heard them. They talked about me sometimes, and I stopped listening and it just stuck that way."

Jiraiya waved a dismissive hand. "We can fix that, easy. It's not all just listening to rumors, either, and gathering good information is a skill you have to learn like any other."

Still, Sakura was reluctant. "I want to be strong like Naruto and Sasuke are. I don't want to be just the support kunoichi."

Jiraiya snorted. "There's a reason support ninja exist; without them, all the others would fail. You might feel like you're playing into a stereotype, but is there anyone else on this team you think could play a supportive role?"

With not a moment's pause to think of it, Sakura answered, "No. But that means I have to do it? That's not fair."

"That's ninja life for ya. Chin up, kid. You can be a heavy hitter and support them at the same time; you just have to work twice as hard, and I'll never cut you any slack."

* * *

Later, with her mind still settling into new facts and new information, Sakura went to find Kakashi.

"Why me?" she demanded, without introduction.

Kakashi regarded her with one lazy eye, dispassionate in proportion to her passion. "Naruto can't, and Sasuke would be ruined."

Her nose wrinkled. Kakashi was reminded that she wasn't even fourteen years old yet, that if it weren't for their village and their calling, Sakura would still be a child. Still a little petulant, but resigned, she asked, "Why not you?"

Kakashi revealed a bright smile through his eye, reached out and ruffled her hair. "I'm just an old assassin, Sakura. I won't be around for as long as you will."

* * *

"What's Jiraiya-sensei teaching you?" Naruto asked, hanging upside-down from a tree branch for no discernible reason.

"Spymaster stuff," Sakura mumbled, flushing a little. It was the first time she'd received specialized training separate from Naruto and Sasuke, though they had both received their own.

"That's so cool!" Naruto exclaimed, his voice not rising above a speaking tone. "Sasuke, didya hear that?"

Sasuke glanced up from the fire he was tending, cooking their dinner. Almost too low to be heard, he muttered, "She'll be good at it."

Ducking her head to hide a small, triumphant smile, Sakura remembered a box full of cherry tomatoes.


	3. The Wheel

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Naruto's eyes are everywhere.

**22nd of March, 66 f.K.**

The Hokage's office was softly lit by a toad-shaped desk lamp and little else, highlighting in a pool of yellow light the short stacks of sorted papers on the desk, the novelty mug of pens with 'My job is TOP SECRET, I don't even know what I'm doing!' emblazoned on the side, and two photograph frames.

Naruto was on the floor behind his desk, bracing himself for the daily influx of clone memories; it was nearly midnight.

"Do you still need to make so many?" Sakura murmured, standing by ready to soothe the inevitable headache. "I'm sure you know enough about them already."

Naruto's eyes were distant. "Arigawa on third street is hiding something. There are two ninja acting suspiciously; either they're dating and trying to keep it secret, or they're spies. Four of the vendors have been feuding with each other for months and it's driving up village costs. Sakura, there's so much of them to know."

Sakura was frowning. "You should have told me about the spies right away," she admonished, "What if I'd assigned them to a sensitive mission?"

"I'd have caught it," Naruto muttered, grinding the heels of his hands into his eye sockets. The clones were beginning to pop. "I think. I hope. I know where all of I am. Me is? Grammar is weird with clones."

"Me is, I think," Sakura agreed. "What are their names?"

"Ah - no, they're dating, I found out today. Saw more of them both than I wanted to. Oh! Iruka-sensei had a run-in with one of me; I think I need to say sorry."

"You think?"

"Well, he doesn't know that was me. Maybe I don't have to?"

The office fell quiet until Naruto groaned and pressed his hands to his temples.

"You can't keep doing this." Sakura ordered. "Cut back on them. Stop making so many."

She brought glowing green hands up to the sides of his head, and watched the strain ease out of his expression. His bright blue eyes glinted oddly in the green light.

"But I can see all of them, Sakura," he murmured. "Everyone we left behind, every day. I get to see all the things we were missing - all the things I missed." _From even before we left_ , he didn't need to say. She was well aware.

"And they talk about me sometimes," he added, his smile widening. "They say I'm a good Hokage, I'm better than they thought. They don't hate me any more. I have to keep doing this - what if I do something wrong? How'm I gonna know if I'm just locked up in this tower all day?"

Sakura sighed. "I know, Naruto, but I worry. Sasuke and I had trouble sorting out information from four clones, and they didn't even have tasks that were that different. You've got - dozens? More?"

"Forty today," he answered. "But I'll do less tomorrow. There were three just for those ninja, and I guess I can cut down the ones assigned at the mission desk and the postings around the village. It's not hard to organize yourself, y'know. You always know how you think. And then when they come back to you, it's just like... remembering all of a sudden."

Sakura shook her head, and began to smile a little. "Maybe it's because your brain is so empty otherwise," she hypothesized, a full-blown grin on her face. "There's so much extra room to handle the clones."

"Hey! So mean, Sakura, I expect it from Sasuke, but you wound me!" But Naruto was laughing too, until his eye twitched and he inhaled sharply and sat up. "Oh."

Sakura broke off her quiet laughter. "What is it?"

"Arigawa, the blacksmith on third street... he's a spy. I saw him in two places at once, but he's not registered as a ninja."

"Hokage?" One of the ANBU asked, stepping out of the corner. She was offering to go get Arigawa.

"Sakura?" Naruto asked.

Sakura considered. "What was he doing? In both places."

"In one he was working at his smithy, the other one was walking along the market street, just talking to people. I wasn't paying much attention to what he was doing; he wasn't that clone's main target."

Sakura nodded. "Have him followed for a few days, see what he does. If nothing turns up in... four days, have him arrested and interrogated."

"Do it," Naruto nodded at the ANBU, who bowed and retreated into the shadows. "Damn. Damn it! This is why, Sakura."

"You aren't the only person watching out for the village," Sakura argued, though her heart wasn't in it. "You can share that burden with others."

"But no one else can do what I do, you said it yourself." Naruto replied, expression grim. "No one has as many eyes as I do."

Sakura smiled weakly at him, trying to get back the jovial air of before. "Just... remember what happened to the last man who had too many eyes."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, this wouldn't leave me the fuck alone. I felt like elaborating on my version of Sasuke, and then it turned into a three-person study. Let me know what you think like/love/hate/totally doesn't fit with what you thought.
> 
> The version of Sasuke presented here is from personal experience in life with someone who I think is very like him at a basic level, including the anger issues etc. Sakura is my weakest characterization so far, I might change her scene later; but she still very much identifies through the boys, although she's made her peace with it. Naruto, being the main viewpoint character of this series, didn't need a lot of study, so I went a little more into the clone thing that's been brought up in The Water Truce.
> 
> Timeline wise, Sasuke's scene falls into his ten-day mission right before the invasion of Konoha, Sakura's is just after meeting Jiraiya, and Naruto's is between opening the gates for the Chuunin Exams and the actual starting day. The mentioned spy was, of course, Orochimaru's.
> 
> As always, I hid stupid references to other things in my titles and whatnot. If you can tell me where I got "God does not want you to be happy, he wants you to be strong" from, you get a cookie. The title "Three Monkeys" should have been made fairly obvious by the content.


End file.
